PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

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syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Alhazred posted:

For a brief period of time having syphilis was fashionable, having it meant that you were a player.

A disease with promiscuity as a late stage symptom is just so metal.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2016 02:40

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 16:02

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

ToxicSlurpee posted:

Catherine the Great was brought up earlier, as well as the rumors of how she died. The rumor (probably started after she passed on) was that she died due to being seriously injured while loving a horse. This was nonsense; she died old of an old person problem. At the age of 67 she had a stroke on the toilet and died of it the next day. All told that's a bog standard way to go.

Now, why would somebody start such a rumor? Well, there were...a lot of reasons. First off notice that her name was "Catherine." As in, a woman's name. She was a she. This was a time when female rulers were still A Very Bad Thing. Being a king or an emperor was considered men's work for manly men. You had to be a tough, manly bastard to rule properly. Catherine, for her part, was actually a pretty good ruler and ushered in and ruled over a golden age for Russia. It went from being "that country over in that cold place that people mostly ignore" to an actual important, major power in European politics. She also embraced the Enlightenment Era whole hog and was a real advocate of thrusting Russia into the future. She even did things like start schools for noble girls (who weren't always all that well educated) and loving the gently caress out of art. The Hermitage Museum started with Catherine's personal art collection and has since spread through the entirety of what was the Winter Palace at the time. It was started in the 1760's and you can go visit it in St. Petersburg if you're feeling ambitious.

Now, as for the other reasons she was unmarried through pretty much her entire reign. She got her start by staging what was basically a coup against her husband. Kind of a dick move all around but at least she didn't just outright murder him. That didn't stop somebody else from assassinating him shortly there after. She probably didn't have a hand in that in the "we never found any evidence" sense. She never remarried. Now, this is...kind of a big deal. See, heirs had to be legitimate. As in, the actual offspring of a married couple of rulers. Her only "legitimate" son became Paul I but it's been hinted (even by she herself) that he wasn't even Peter III's actual son. She may have had a lover at the time who may have been the actual father.

Which kind of leads to the second half of why that rumor started. See, Catherine was an unashamed horn dog. She hosed everybody that struck her fancy. As an unmarried, very rich woman who ran, you know, a freaking big nation she could have any dude she wanted. Here's another side of it; she was extremely generous to her lovers. Any dude that struck her fancy was guaranteed an elevation in status. New nobility was created in the wake of her humping. This was especially true if when she got tired of a guy. She had a habit of landing them, giving them a bag of money, assigning them a pension, and sending them on their way. Catching her attention was something you wanted to have happen to you. Hell some of her lovers helped her find her next one.

Now, this was also, at the time, a Very Bad Thing. Only men were to have lovers and it was to be kept on the down low. A kept woman understood that she was probably unmarriagable and would probably end up having illegitimate children that would be born into a low station no matter how far up she was. Royal women were also expected to get married, not sleep around, and produce legitimate heirs that were, you know, of the proper high station. Catherine gave no shits; if she saw a serf she thought was hot it was hump o'clock and she didn't give a drat what anybody had to say about it.

Now notice that she died of old rather than of violence. Her husband and her son both got assassinated; the latter because he was kind of a lovely ruler. Catherine herself even favored her grandson, who would later ascend to the throne anyway, as Paul I was kind of a shitter and she knew it. She intended on announcing Alexander I as her immediate successor to the throne but died before she could make the announcement. Then a coup murdered Paul I which put Alexander I on the throne. For his part he wanted nothing to do with the killing and felt very, very guilty about the way he became Emperor. Things were pretty good in Russia during Catherine's reign for pretty much everybody; even serfs saw better legal status than they had before. When your ruler is competent you just kind of go with the flow, get what I'm saying?

This is very well written.

But we still have to make the cheap horse jokes, you understand.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2016 06:29

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Wheat Loaf posted:

Moore, Craig and David Niven.

Thank you. No one remembers the old Casino Royale.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2016 17:26

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Alhazred posted:

Fun Fact about G�ring: During WWI he was in charge of an unit called "The Flying Circus".

Herman Gerbils. That is all.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2016 18:13

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Alhazred posted:

Recent discoveries has lead people to theorize that most cave paintings was also done by women since the handprints that were probably some sort of signature looks more like a female hand than a male hand.

Recent discoveries like Reubens

# ¿ Dec 13, 2016 23:59

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

RagnarokAngel posted:

It's tricky because it was in vogue to basically suspect every historical figure as being secretly gay because it was controversial so you have to take it with a grain of salt. Especially artistic types.

The party of Lincoln.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2016 14:29

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

AFewBricksShy posted:

That's no worse than Richard Nixon:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/02/nixon-in-love-103490

The best worst presidential love affair was not Bill and Monica, but Reagan and Mrs. Reagan.

Backlot blowjob queen makes good.

http://wonkette.com/599350/a-firm-yet-tender-sex-positive-tribute-to-nancy-reagan-hollywood-bj-queen

# ¿ Dec 15, 2016 22:29

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

InediblePenguin posted:

if two dudes touch, ever, under any circumstances other than sports or a fight, they're gay"

this is why we went and invaded afghanistan

# ¿ Dec 16, 2016 08:29

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Arcsquad12 posted:

There go those red tails. I sure hope we get to fly with them again! Also, P-40s and mustangs blowing up destroyers with .50 cals

They're pretty easy to take down once you get their shield generators offline.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2016 05:35

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Ichabod Sexbeast posted:

OG fashion was pretty cutthroat

Hugo Boss agrees.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2016 18:04

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

zoux posted:

When I read The Making of the Atomic Bomb what raised my eyebrows the most was the construction of the world's first artificial reactor, Chicago Pile One. I guess our modern perception of nuclear reactors is that they are highly secure, shielded and protected facilities that must be carefully monitored and maintained lest we all die in a nuclear fireball, so learning the first one was literally a pile of graphite blocks, some with uranium in them, that were stacked by hand underneath the bleachers at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago seemed a little negligent to me.

Those early guys were really cavalier about radiation.

My takeaway from the manhattan project was mostly the science man (who was totally wrong) speculating that a nuclear bomb could ignite atmospheric nitrogen.

It's really horrific to imagine some military guys just chomping cigars and saying go ahead and light this bitch.

Shut up nerd.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2017 21:00

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

zoux posted:

That's a way overstated but very common anecdote. What actually happened was some of the Los Alamos Eggheads were like "hey can this possibly ignite the whole atmosphere" and they went to a Senior Egghead (Teller I think) who did some math that proved it wasn't the case.

Yeah that seems about right.

But being a kid in the wake of the cold war doing a book report on it, it sent chills up my spine.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2017 21:13

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

AriadneThread posted:

Marie Curie's daughter Ir�ne Joliot-Curie also deserves mention for playing a major role in both puzzling out the components of atoms and the possibility of nuclear fission, although it took others to realize the implications of her experimental results.
She did receive a joint nobel prize with her own husband Fr�d�ric Joliot-Curie for their work on artificial radioactivity and how to change one element into another.

Ir�ne's daughter H�l�ne Langevin-Joliot is still alive today at 89, and teaches nuclear physics at the university of Paris.

Sounds like alchemy, shall we burn her?

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 02:39

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Dr. Angela Ziegler posted:

Marie Curie's notebooks are still so radioactive they can't be viewed up close

Demon Core

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/demon-core-the-strange-death-of-louis-slotin

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 03:04

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Powaqoatse posted:

Guessing it's steam = artificial vs vapor = natural? Or maybe pressure vs. lack thereof?

One is visible like fog and I guess causes you to blunder into lamp posts, the other can burn through your flesh so pick your poison.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2017 01:20

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

OldTennisCourt posted:

Caligula is super interesting. Nah, dude was always loving nuts but I do think that after that illness he became way worse.

When he first gained power he got everyone on his side by doing poo poo like forgiving all debts and having massive festivals and fights CONSTANTLY. This of course drained the enormous amount of money the previous ruler had accumulated.

An effect of this was that the Coliseum shows got real lovely. Like old rear end starved lions pacing around and getting killed by lovely fighters. During one of those fights some dudes started mocking it and Caligula got mega pissed and had all of them round up, had their tongues cut out and forced to fight for the crowd.

He also got money by doing poo poo like abducting rich people and basically mugging them by making them sign him over all their poo poo in a will and killing them.

He eventually got to the point where he was doing insane poo poo like making his favorite horse a political figure, dressing up a little kid as his dead sister and declaring himself god and making legions of soldiers "Fight Poseidon" by going to the ocean and slashing it with their weapons and getting his treasure of seashells.

So like our modern day golden age of television means the bread and circuses are working fine?

Everything'll be alright?

# ¿ Jan 17, 2017 05:25

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Wheat Loaf posted:

A fact I learned today is that the release mechanism on the Enola Gay malfunctioned during pre-flight tests and was only fixed in the hours before it took off to head towards Japan, and that if they'd been delayed until the following day, weather patterns would have meant that Tokyo would have been the only realistic target.

It's that whole butterfly effect / "for want of a nail" thing. You assume that history would have changed if Truman had said, "Let's hit Tokyo instead of Hiroshima," but it could well have been down to something as trivial as a damaged piece of machinery.

It's a bit like the thing about how Obama might not have been elected in 2006 if Seven-of-Nine's husband hadn't had an affair (or whatever that scandal was). So imagine that: Obama doesn't get into the senate in 2006; Hillary Clinton is elected president in 2008 and whoever she had as her vice-president (probably somebody like Deval Patrick) would have lost the election to, I don't know, Christine O'Donnell last November; Donald Trump probably never rejoins the Republicans and spends all his time trying to build golf courses in Scotland.

We were all very grateful for Jeri Ryan for the last 8 years. Don't put Trump on her too.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2017 02:48

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

The band America

Formed in England

# ¿ Feb 19, 2017 13:13

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

A White Guy posted:

Apparently you can get a purple heart for friendly fire (or rather, being the victim of friendly fire). Pat Tillman got a purple heart when he was friendly-fired to death by US forces. A posthumous purple heart seems like adding insult to ~~injury~~ death.

Why would that be a revelation to you? Shot during a war is shot during a war.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2017 22:50

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Powaqoatse posted:

A few notes on how to behave by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466�1536), from his work De civilitate morum puerilium (On Civility in Children). Some are reasonable, others are a bit weird:

Snot should not hang from the Nose [...] Wiping ones Nose on their Hat or Clothes is rogueish and farmerish; on the Arm or Elbow is for Fishmongers and Shopmistresses.

To laugh at all Words or Deeds is for Jesters; to laugh at none is for Stupids.

If thou must vomit, then go aside (by yourself). To vomit is not bad in itself, but to have caused it with Gluttony or Greed in Food and Drink is terrible.

If one has Something stuck in one's Teeth, do not pick it out with a Knife or Fingernails like a Dog or a Cat. [Rather, use] the small Bones from the upper Thigh of a Chicken.

To sit with the Knees wide from Eachother or to stretch and bend ones Legs is Prideful. When one sits, one should hold both Knees together and the Feet when one stands, or separate them slightly from Eachother. Some sit so that their one Shin is hanging above the other Knee, some stand with their Legs crossed together. The former is for the Anxious and the latter for Fools.

Do not walk through Church shouting a short Prayer to Christ with your Head bare.

To look at others with crossed Eyes while drinking is shameful, likewise to bend the Neck back like a Stork to get the last Sip.

To dip ones Fingers in the Food is farmerish.

It is an extreme Human that gropes around in the Bowl with their Hand, likewise it is of ill Repute to turn the Bowl so that the good Bits come to thee.

Couldn't find an English edition online, so these are my translations from the Danish 1646 edition. Highly recommended!

I'm the wide stance of privilege throughout history

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 16:29

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Nessus posted:

Was Baron Samedi consulted about this?

He was riding JFK real hard at that point

And I mean can't blame him

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 06:32

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Is Putin a tsar/caesar? Because one gets the feeling he'd like that honorific.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2017 16:12

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

FreudianSlippers posted:

Fun fact:
Making up random facts that sorta sound like they could be true is fun.

It's the best.

Fun fact:
History is chock full of this

# ¿ Jun 21, 2017 20:20

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Wheat Loaf posted:

Puritan names were the best (or "best"). Names like "Faithful" are a bit odd but you can see people having them. "Search-the-Scriptures" is a much more unusual name, but it's one some people had.

"Praise-God Barebone" was an MP in the 17th century. His relatives included "Damned Barebone", "Fear-God Barebone", "Jesus-Christ-came-into-the-world-to-save Barebone" and "If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned Barebone" (who went by "Nicholas").

During the American Civil War, there was a Confederate general who was literally named "States Rights Gist".

Praise-the-Lord-and-Pass-the-Ammo Richardson was one heck of a cool cat. Gotta live it down.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2017 14:26

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Tasteful Dickpic posted:

And in the early days of machine gunning, urine was used as a coolant. This practice was so common that the German-made machine guns had a convenient port on the side at crotch height.

Source: QI, so make of that what you will.

I find it's much easier to just wholeheartedly believe everything I hear on QI and that if it is wrong it will be corrected in the next serires

Just like the bible

# ¿ Jun 24, 2017 14:01

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Grand Prize Winner posted:

Seems more like an emergency option than the go-to imo. Piss would leave a buildup of ammonia crystals in the tank, which probably wouldn't be good for thermal efficiency.

Yeah and I'm gonna guess pee is salty? So you have corrosion coming in to play. Also what is "crotch height" with regards to a machine gun?

Nevertheless Fry and Davies are infallible

# ¿ Jun 24, 2017 14:37

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Sulla-Marius 88 posted:

It's nice that you enjoy reading but do you also do it when guests are at your house and you have no internet or TV or penicillin

I read your posts out loud and consequently will never feel the touch of a woman

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 14:41

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Pick posted:

Most people don't know this, but Rome still exists.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 20:15

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

funmanguy posted:

The full construction of Rome, both city and empire, took a total of two days.

And yet it took Nero six days to fiddle it away

# ¿ Jun 26, 2017 06:32

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

ChocNitty posted:

In the early 19th century, up to 90% of young males in China were hooked on opium that the British slanged during the first and second opium wars, in order to make up for their massive trade deficit. Britian shipped tens of thousands of 150 pound chests of powerful Bengal made opium, against the will of China's emperor. They turned China into a bunch of Amy Winehouses.

In some schools of thought the war in Afghanistan was fought to keep the opiods flowing to Europe and America.

Or, women's rights I guess.

Probably not to try to find Osama though.

But boy howdy do we have an epidemic of that poo poo right now.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2017 20:45

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

chitoryu12 posted:

There's been quite a few stories of that happening. Sometimes they'd strap them to fighters and have them do some stunts to make sure it would be all mixed up.

In this stunt the band the B-52s was created

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=182AepOJjMs

And believe me the pilot did not intend on that

Tin roof rusted

# ¿ Aug 27, 2017 20:26

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

hard counter posted:

it's my (very loose) understanding that at some point when certain pagan groups were undergoing relatively peaceful christianization via missionaries that some scholars argue that there was a transitional period where the hammer motif was morphing into a cross - the hammer wasn''t just exclusive to thor or vikings but figured into other european pantheons too - where the figure of Christ was also initially adopted as a sort of philosopher-warrior king who on the one hand taught mercy, humility, charity, etc but on the other hand scourged the unrighteous and personally, violently undertook the harrowing of hell a la doomguy when he was dead for 3 days; that interpretation would later finalize into something much more orthodox later on

i can't give any more detail than that because it was in a documentary i watched years ago and it may only apply to certain pendants that look even more unusual than that

Christ: Knee-Deep in the Damned is a new one on me but sounds pretty intriguing.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2017 22:06

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

ishikabibble posted:

Hitlerine is the worst mouthwash.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2017 17:28

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Grand Prize Winner posted:

hitler shot himself in the head

In spite of the fact that the Russians were in Berlin he was still too much of a coward to do it himself

But ya know, once they got in there and you're Hitler

# ¿ Dec 22, 2017 04:06

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Nuclear War posted:

Spork

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhfuuKiTcYQ

# ¿ Dec 27, 2017 03:52

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Trauma Dog 3000 posted:

jesus christ at that point just surrender

Funny thing thing about those keep calm and carry on signs is that they were only to be used in the event of invasion and occupation.

Seems like they were prepared to do everything the Americans said the Japanese would have if we had invaded.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2018 06:15

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Alhazred posted:

A roman jeweler sold false jewels to the emperor Galienus' wife Salonina he sentenced the jeweler to be eaten by lions in the arena. The jeweler was forced into the arena where he heard the lions roaring and then the doors was opened.....and out came a tiny chicken. Galienus then proclaimed �He practiced deceit, and has had it practiced on him� and let the jeweler go.

I was expecting this to go in a different direction.

May the three of them be remembered for a sick rear end joke.

# ¿ May 9, 2018 17:37

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Milo and POTUS posted:

...cleaner than yours?

And more importantly, which dirty boxers? Did he leave a pair behind like the diaper sniper? Did they get some from his mom's house when they first started looking for him? Or were they the ones he was wearing when they finally caught up to him?

# ¿ Jun 27, 2018 16:40

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

If you ever go on Jeopardy! (which a lot of goons have) remember that America is a misnomer. Some mapmaker named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci named the whole continent, err both continents

# ¿ Jul 4, 2018 16:32

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 16:02

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Peanut Butler posted:

a civil war story about a woman who pretends to be a teenage boy to fight in the war except she wants in on that sweet FOR MEN ONLY airplane steak

oh Terry Pratchett how I miss your crazy ways

# ¿ Jul 20, 2018 03:26

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

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